Atypical Histoplasma capsulatum infection in a dog.

J. L. VonSteenhouse
Robert C. DeNovo Jr., University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Abstract

In a dog with six weeks history of illness (lethargy, weight loss, intermittent diarrhoea, laboured breathing, polydipsia and polyuria), Histoplasma capsulatum was identified in blood smears and pleural fluid. There has been only one previous report of H. capsulatum organisms within neutrophils. The non-regenerative anaemia and adrenal insufficiency also present were thought to be indirect effects of the disseminated histoplasmosis, as was the severe gastrointestinal bleeding from which the dog apparently died.